Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Round 7: Dutch Grand Prix oha ,g o e s (Above) Alex Barros (6), Michael Doohan (4) and Kevin Schwantz blast through Assen's chicane during the ir early battle in the SOOcc Dutch GP. (Left) Schwantz ended up dropping back before passing Doug Chandler (10) on the last lap to finish fifth. By Michael Scott Pho tos by Gold & Goose ASSEN, HOLLAND, JUNE 25 ichael Doohan opened hostilities w ith a scathing ve rbal attack on the "outdated and dangerous" circuit of Assen , Then he set a blistering pace at the track, that had cost him the title in 1992, to win his fifth out of seven GPs this year and his fourth in successio n. But instead of an expected easy ride, after Assen master Kevin Schwantz took his tu m to crash in practice, th e Au stra lian title leader 's HRC Honda was l'I 14 pressed almost all the way and often led by the inj ured Lucky St rike Suzuki rider's teamm ate, Alex Barr os. Th e Brazilian led and cras he d last ye a r. Th is ti me; rid ing a bike hastily repaired after a spate of engin e problems, he kept it all togeth er to sec u re second, les s than two seconds ad rift. Third went to Alex Crivill e after a lastlap battle w ith fello w Spanish Honda rider Alberto Puig, who was fourth. But w ha t was in man y ways the ride of the d a y only yield ed fifth place. It wen t to Schwantz, who man y th ought was unlikely to race after di slocating and fracturing his wrist in the first prac- tice session, but he bounced back heroically, wearing a cast and with a speci al handlebar grip, and even led in the early stages. It was an incredible performance, but the injury may cast a longer shadow, coming at the halfway point at one of his best tracks, just when he needed to start turning the tide on Doohan. It happened, he ad mitted, when he was trying too hard in the first session, one lap after slott ing in to fo u r th place. He was flicked onto the low side, then found the bike following him towards the barriers. "I put out my left hand to push it off, and the gas tank landed on it." Three small bones were dislocated, a bone in his hand fractured , and his scaphoic bone cracked. Not for the first time, he shrugged off the pain and the doctors' early predictions tha t he was out of the race, and wrote another brave chapter in his continuing life story. The meetin g was run in fine weather throu ghout, in front of th e usual av id Assen crowd. Number ing 115,000, it was sho rt of the record but better than last year. Doohan stretched his title lead to 42 po ints, bu t still declined to be confident or to relent in his criticism of the classic circuit. " It 's good to win here, but it hasn' t changed my opinion. 1 think it's d angero us to race 500s on public roa ds profiled for d rainage rather than grip . As for the title, there are still seven races left, and a lot of points to be won. Anything could happen." That sentiment was ea gerly echoed by Schwantz, before flying to Dr. Claudio Costa's clinic in Bologna for urgent treatment to- his wrist injury with the Italian GP just eight days away. John Kocinski had led the first lap afte r a strong start, but the Cagiva rider was also carrying an injury to his left hand from his Hockenheim crash. He was disputing fifth with Schwa ntz when he missed his braking point for the first co rne r, a nd ra n straight o n without falling, rejoining to finish eighth. With HRC Honda's Shinichi Itoh an early crash victim, this left second Cagiva rider Doug Chandler to take up the attack on Schwantz. But the Texan shadowed his former teammate until the last lap, then nipped past to consign him to sixth. Daryl Beattie was seventh, his best. result so far since he joined Malboro Roberts Yamaha this year, with teammate Luca Cadalora fading to ninth, also suffering due to hand injuries from the previous race. Loris Reggiani had re li shed the prospect of Assen on the V-twin ApriIia 400, b ut the bike failed to live up to expectations, running in its usual place between the private and factory V-fours then suffering a third successive race failure - this time a major blow-up tha t broke a connecting rod. Th e 250cc Gran d Prix was thrilling. partly for the wrong reasons. A pair of crashes on lap three rewrote the plot as firs t Pil eri Ma rl boro Honda's Lo ris Capirossi and defending World Champion Tetsuya Harada left the party abruptly after the Italian rammed the Japanese rider at a slow corner, Later on the same lap, erstwhile leader Doriano Romboni on the HB Honda was also out, pushing too hard to stay ahead of the remorseless pole qualifier Max Biaggi and his Ches terfield Aprilia. This lef t Biaggi to power away all alone to his third win, reclaiming the championship lead. The real race was a mad five-bike battIe for second, with Tadayuki Okada, Wilco Zeelenberg. Ralf Waldmann and Nobuatsu Aoki (all on Hondas) sw apping back and forth with an inspired Jean-Michel Bayle and his Chesterfield Aprilia. They were four abreast into the last chicane, where Aoki left his braking just too late, cut across the grass, and almost collided with Bayle at the back of the group. They finished in the above order, with Zeelenberg delighted to have found form again in front of his home fans. Takeshi Tsujimura's FCC Honda took an electrifying 125cc GP, after the Japanese rider had stalled on the line an d been last away. He na rrowly defeated Jorge Martinez 's Yamaha, home hero Lo ek Bode li er' s Hon da a n d Kazuto Sakata's Aprilia in a fierce d ice th a t intens ified on the last lap. Temporary second FCC rider Toshu Manako had been with them, but broke down with five laps left; Peter Oettl crashed out of a likely third place on th e exit from th e chicane, wit h only yards to the line. He was so angry he didn't even think of pushing the wrecka g e another few yards to secure fifth place. All were helped by the earl y d eparture of pole qua lifier Noboru Veda, who crashed on the second lap; and a second breakdown of the year for Dirk Raudies. Rolf Biland won a rather processional

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